Wednesday, October 26, 2005

A good brew is achieved when the tea tastes as good as possible. To learn how to achieve this result, let's start at the end and see how the tea in the gaiwan should look like: This is a good example: the leaves are evenly open in the gaibei. They fill all the space, and yet are not crammed. Each tea leaf has reached the same level of unfolding, which means they are all releasing the same aromas and tastes at the same time.

Here is now an example of a brew that has gone wrong and will continue to be substandard if the leaves are allowed to remain without harmony in the gaiwan:

After pouring the tea in the pitcher, the leaves lean on one side of the gaibei. In the next brew, the leaves on the left can unfold quickly in their empty half of the gaiwan. The leaves against the wall won't unfold as quickly, which means these will release their flavors more slowly. The result will be a mix of tastes: the quickly unfolding leaves will start to release their astringency while the others have not released all their light flavors.

Rule: The water flow must enable an even unfolding of all tea leaves.

Let's come back now to the beginning and apply this rule on all our actions.

1. Put the leaves in the gaibei.

Here is an example for Oolong. The dry leaves must evenly cover the bottom of the gaibei.

The ideal quantity (for oolong) is the one that gives a gaiwan full, but not crammed, with open leaves.Another rule is: the better the tea, the less you will use.

For Baozhong, you first press it a little in your hand before putting the leaves in the gaibei. Fill half or more of the gaiwan with dry leaves.

Note: I'm using my bare hands to take and put the tea in the gaiwan. Don't be shocked! My hands are clean, and the best tea leaves are picked and sorted by hand. This is also part of the 'chemistry', the sensual aspect, of what's happening between you and the tea leaves. Tea leaves are very sensitive and easily pick outside odors. So, while it's OK that the brewer touches them, the guests should only be allowed to look and smell them.

2. The first brew

Except old teas and cooked pu-erh, I never rinse the tea beforehand. Nobody is doing it for tea bags, even though most of them are of much lower quality! Tea is processed at over 100 degrees Celcius and therefore I consider it sufficiently clean. Especially, I don't want to waste a drop of the wonderful aromas!

Water has just boiled. We take the water pot and bring it closer to the gaiwan. We pause a moment to let the water calm down, so that we can better control its flow. The way we pour the hot water in the gaiwan depends on the kind of leaves we are brewing.

a. Oolong:Let's dance! This video will show better than a thousand words how to brew oolong. This tea needs a lot of energy to open up its curled leaves. The circular movement will stop when all leaves are equidistant, resulting in a perfect balance.

b. BaozhongPour water directly on all the leaves, almost up to the top of the gaiwan. Use the lid to take the foam away. Lightly oxidized, baozhong can take the direct heat on its leaves.

c. Green tea.Slowly pour the water on the wall of the gaibei, thereby avoiding a direct contact between the hot water and the fragile green tea leaves.

d. Pu-erh.This strong tea can also take a direct hit on its leaves. Should there be foam, also take it away with the lid. The water flow should be neither too strong, neither too slow.

3. Second brew and up

Once open, the tea leaves don't need that much strength to release their flavors. For the following brews, we pour the water slowly and in an even manner all around the gaiwan. We keep your body and mind calm during this step. Our goal remains to reach all leaves with the same strength so that they release the same flavors. If the leaves are plenty, we can also take the lid and use it give the leaves space to unfold.In case the leaves loose much temperature between two brews, we will pour the water with more strength, from higher above the gaibei, to waken them up.

4. When do you pour the tea out?

Using a white porcelain will let you see more easily when the water starts to turn darker with tea. You can also take the lid and smell its bottom to verify that the smells have been released. In theory, the first brew takes longer than the second and the following ones will steep longer and longer. Besides, steep time may also be a matter of personal preference for light or strong tea.

Rule: The better the tea, the longer it can steep.

5. How do you pour the tea from the gaibei into the strainer (or directly in the cups)?The speed of the pour will influence taste:- Pour the tea quickly in the strainer, and you'll obtain a tea with floral notes. (Recommended for baozhong, jinshuan oolong, green tea in general).

- Pour the tea slowly (but continuously) and the tea will have more yun, longer aftertaste. (Good for luanze oolong, old teas and fine vintage puer).

When you eventually pour the tea in the cups, take into account that the last drops coming out of the gaibei or strainer are more concentrated than the first. Therefore, don't fill one cup after another, but fill them in several rounds.

In the next lesson, I will show different ways to appretiate the tea during the gongfu cha.

The tools are all set and the ingedients are ready. It's now time to start the gongfu cha with a very important first step: preheating your equipment. See this video.

First, you pour hot water in the gaibei, then the pitcher and the cup. This water than ends up in the little waste bowl. The preheating time will depend upon the thickness of the porcelain. The video shows a quick way to heat the lid of the gaiwan.

Preheating is an essential step of gongfu cha. The higher the temperature in the gaibei, the more flavors the tea leaves release. A tea made without preheating of the vessel will taste closed, muted.

During my first tea lessons with Teaparker, the most common mistake we students used to make was an incomplete or insufficient pereheating. It's so important that you may sometimes want to warm your pitcher and cup again between two distant brewings.

This step is specific to gongfu cha and also applies if you're using a small of big teapot.

1. Tea: any tea can be prepared with the gongfu cha method. Of course, fine Chinese whole leave teas are perfect for gongfu cha, but you could even use a plain tea bag! The goal of gongfu cha is, for a given tea, to find the best parameters to brew the best possible cup of tea with it.

2. Water: Tea is 99% water. So you better choose your water very carefully. A good way to start learning about tea is to blind test several waters (mineral, purified, tap...) you consider using for your tea. Find out by yourself which one slips most easily down your mouth and has a mellow, but neutral taste.

3. Fire: Heat lets the leaves release their flavors faster. A 100 degree Celcius brewed tea will release twice as many molecules as when brewed at 80 degrees C. That's the reason why Lu yu and Teaparker recommend to always use water that has reached the boiling point for a short period of time. Best is to cook the water at medium speed in order to catch the right moment, when the bubbles have the size of crab eyes. An overboiled water will taste 'old' and loose its freshness. If this should happen, add fresh water to the overcooked water and boil more carefully again.

The subject keeps on coming up in mails and discussion groups about tea. Almost each tea web site proposes its slightly different version of how to make Chinese tea. Some give good advice, but there are always mistakes or inaccuracies and none seems to go as far as what I have learned from tea master Teaparker. So, I'll share what I've learned in a series of several lessons. These are more guidelines than a standard procedure and they should give you enough basic knowledge to let you make educated experiments by yourself. Because it's not enough that I (or Teaparker) tells you this is the best way to make tea, most importantly YOU must feel the difference.

First, what are the most basic tools we need to brew Chinese tea?

1. A gaibei (also called gaiwan) made of 3 elements: a cover, a cup and a saucer,

2. A small cup to drink the tea,

3. A pitcher or strainer to empty the tea from the gaibei.

4. A water absorbing towel below all the above: tea brewing can quickly look quite messy with water everywhere. The towel is the low cost solution to keep everything neat and your mind in peace.

The gaiwan, cup and pitcher must all be made of glazed porcelain instead of glass or clay. Why? Porcelain is neutral while unglazed clay will modify the taste of tea. All serious tea competitions and professionals use porcelain. They are usually plain white, but motives on the outside are not a problem. I also recommend rather thin walls, as such walls let delicate flavors express themselves better. But it's not a must. Thicker walls, on the other hand, may be more resistant to shocks.

You'll also need 2 other items not shown here: a hot water pot on a source of energy (wood, gas, electricity) and a trash can for water and used tea leaves.

The picture shows the great difference between 2 Jiangsu Bi Luo Chun. The one on the left was picked on April 6, 2005, just a few days after the Qing Ming Festival. I don't have an indication on when the one on the right was picked, but the size of the dry leaves indicate a later date, even though it was the most expensive and highest grade Bi Luo Chun that my friend bought in a tea shop near Shanghai. (It's nice to have friends and family traveling to China who remember about my passion!)

But it's not just the size, shape and price that's different (the smaller, the more expensive). The bigger leave Bi Luo Chun is very fragrant, much more than the smaller one, but it's flat in the mouth. On the other hand the small buds Bi Luo Chun display a powerful, yet delicate, yun in the mouth and throat. Amazing to see such different characteristics from the same kind of tea. Conclusion? A nice fragrance will give you a high grade Bi Luo Chun, but it's the yun, the long aftertaste that will make it truly exceptional. Could this be generalized to (all) other tea kinds? Personally, I think so.

Sunday, October 16, 2005

In search for the best cup of tea, we have to devote much attention to the quality of the water we use. Water makes 99% of the tea and bad water easily spoils the best teas. So Teaparker devoted yet another lesson to water last week.Let's first recall Lu Yu's findings dating back from the Tang dynasty. He found out that the best water comes the mountain sources. Then comes river water in valleys, where the river is neither too quick nor too slow. And worst are most underground waters from wells. Water at the bottom of a cascade is also very bad, because it is too agitated, sour.

By the way, Lu Yu also said that silver and gold boilers are best to cook the water. Teaparker gave us the opportunity to prove this point with a 99.9% silver pot. It's very hot and very expensive too! The water bubbles remain very small and the water is very 'delicate'. But I reckon that using my Japanese tetsubin will be sufficient until the Taiwanese ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) I own skyrockets.

Of more practical use is this other teaching from Lu Yu: "The water that is from the same region as the tea will be its best fit." It makes sense. The tea leaves will perform best when they are hydrated with the same water that used to nourish them.

This explains, among other things, why the tea you drink in the producing region tastes much better than back home. (One time travellers to China should beware! My advice: bring some tea from home so that you can evaluate the change in taste).

Now, does it mean tea vendors in Asia should start selling local Yunnan, Lugu, Pinlin water with their pu-er, oolong and baozhong? Probably not. This would seriously undermine the logistical cost advantage tea has over other beverages like wine.

So, what can be done to both:a. improve the quality of your water for tea,b. give it a 'Chinese touch' so that it fits better with Chinese tea.

Any idea? Soy sauce!? It would definitely make the water taste more 'Chinese', but I doubt it would taste good with tea!

No, the solution I thought of is to use activatedbamboo charcoal. Teaparker agreed with me that bamboo charcoal treated water tastes better than ordinary water. He only had a word of caution: use a mineral poor water water as a base and don't let the charcoal add too many minerals to the water, otherwise the water may get too hard.

My theory is that bamboo is THE quintessential Chinese plant. It should be perfect to reach our two goals of improving the water quality and giving it a 'Chinese' taste.

The use of charcoal bamboo as a water purifier seems quite solid. The fact that it's supposed to emit negative ions reminds me of the nano water machine Teaparker is fond of lately for his water. (I am not a fan of miracle-like claims of a particular substance, by the way. I think it is very hard to verify medical claims, but when it comes to taste I just need my tongue to form a judgement).

Taiwan's bamboo mountain is located somewhere between Dong Ding and Shan Lin-Shi, the main oolong producing areas of Taiwan. Bamboo therefore grows in pretty much the same conditions as Taiwan oolong. The minerals it releases must probably be in a very similar proportion as the soil and water there. And what else than bamboo to represent Chinese character?!

So I ordered some charcoal last week. It arrived on Thursday and I have done some experimenting with it.

1. Tap waterMy home has one of the worst tap water I ever encountered. I will even taste it's bad smell sometimes in the soup! I let two pieces of charcoal in 600 cl of cold tap water for 8 hours. The result was astonishing: the filtering properties are clearly working and the taste is greatly improved. I evaluate that the bad stuff (chlorine, others) have been reduced by 80% in intensity and that a smooth texture was added. For making tea it's still not good enough, but at least I am convinced it works. I'll try to leave the charcoal longer next time.

2. Pure water2. a. Pure water with bamboo charcoal cold for 6 hours

The plastic bottle smell almost completely disappeared and I feel a little tickling on the tip of my tongue, like the 'soda' effect I detected in the nano water from Teaparker. The addition of minerals also makes it more smooth and refreshing. In my opinion, this means the pure water has come alive again. It's not as cold as Evian and I think it will be good for my tea.

2. b. Pure water with bamboo charcoal boiled in my tetsubin

Boiling the water is supposed to accelerate the exchanges between the charcoal and the water. However, I found that the plastic smell didn't disappear as much as above. The boiling time should be kept to a minimum to avoid that the water turns old (in theory, when not using charcoal), so the charcoal may not have had enough time to do its job. I will try to see what happens if I wait longer at a higher temperature.

Preliminary results seem to validate my theory. Best would be to perform the tests on water in the USA and in Europe. To do this, I will give 2 pieces of FREE BAMBOO CHARCOAL SAMPLES to those of you interested in sharing their results, with each order of tea or accessory, as long as my supply lasts.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Last Sunday, Teaparker had promised to let us taste an old Taiwanese tea from the Japan colonial rule era (pre 1945). It would have come at the right time as Monday Taiwan celebrated its National Day (October 10). I think he must have forgotten about it (like the other students, by the way) and didn't have the tea with him. however, he did prepare a special treat for us: this special Yi-Bang Mountain Pu-er. It comes from the same region as the best pu-er I had tasted so far.This special tea comes with a story. It is supposed to come from the same tree or place from that was reserved for the chinese emperors. I didn't follow the story in much detail (didn't even catch the year!), because I was busy preparing the brewing and because it's not the story that matters but the tea. Just one not so small detail: the market value of this tea is 210,000 NTD (USD 6,400) per bing!!! Let's do some math and see at what level of 'conspicuous consumption' we were:

Let's assume the bing weighs 500 grams. That means that the 2.5 grams approximately we drank cost 32 USD. This is equivalent to a very good, but not exceptional, bottle of wine. We were 5 to taste and lavish praise upon it. So this pleasure cost 7 USD per person (a ticket in a movie theater). So, this may well be the cheapest form of luxury, after all!

I had the honor, but also the responsibility, to make the tea. I did my best to remain calm. A nervous flow of water would adversely affect this fine tea. I was also concerned that the water was not hot enough. For pu er, the water flow that enters the pot in the first brew must be of medium strength and hit the leaves directly. Teaparker recommeded I don't use a pitcher, but that I should pour directly from the silver teapot into the cups. This allows the tea to be warmer.As I drank my first sip, I first thought that I had 'fumbled' my brew. It slipped down my throat like water. I was about to apologize to the group, but then felt the mellow, delicate but strong yun come out and fill my mouth and throat with their perfection. Not any hint of astringency or any bad taste. Pu-er perfection. Teaparker even complimented me on the brewing. The next 2 brews were also great (sorry I didn't take more precise tasting notes, but this was a moment to enjoy, not one to study). Then Teaparker brewed the tea himself and it got even better!

In my first entry about this subject, I mentioned Teaparker's trick: looking at the bamboo wrapper and see if it looks as old as the puer is supposed to be. Today, I see that Teaparker has posted the picture I mentioned of a 100 year old puer bing in its original bamboo leave. Compare it with the other young bamboo leaves and you'll see a big difference.

Last week, I received this little dirty plate and almost wanted to cry, so happy I was: You probably think I am totally crazy now. Few people get so excited about their non-alcoholic beverages. Probably even fewer will want to collect such an old, dirty plate. So let me make a plea for sanity. Consider the following pictures after a first cleaning:

Top:

BelowDetailsNow, when I brew old or very fine tea in a teapot, I use what in reality is a Yuan dynasty (1277-1367) plate under the teapot. Its beauty, its age, the tea (and some ancient Chinese music) are turning my tea tastings into a little paradise on earth. Not so crazy, after all!

This week, I bought this yixing purple sand clay jar (15 cm high, 560 gram, baked at over 1200 degrees) from the same producer who made the zhuni teapots. He's a good friend of Teaparker, which helped me to get introduced. He is also a major player in the fine Chinese tea market. His basement looks like a museum. Half of the shelves are not his own products, but ancient potteries he's collecting! Song, Tang, Yuan dynasty... He says many of his guests spend hours going through his collection. I can't wait to go there again!.

No wonder his works are of such classical and simple Chinese design! This one has only the word 'Cha' carved on top. But others with calligraphy and paintings (see post below) are also available. I bought this jar for my flaked Jiang Cheng puer. It will help improve it further. Old teas need a little air and humidity coming through the pores of the yixing clay to continue their postfermentation at a slow pace. And for pressed puer it is even more important. It needs to be flaked in advance of brewing. If not, you may get some off flavors that were trapped inside the tea and that didn't have time to go away.

And then there is the concentrated pu-er flavor coming out of the jar! Hummm...

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Remember how I advised choosing the color of your bowl depending on the tea you brew?

Yesterday, I bought beautiful green cups, very thin at the rim, but thick at the bottom. They feel quite heavy and warm in your hand when you hold them. And the glaze is so smooth, that it's like a caress on your lower lip...

My purpose was to verify Lu Yu's study that this kind of green color will show green tea in all its splendor. For that, I brewed some post Qing Min Jie Bi Lo Chun 2005 and the result needs no further comment. Just compare with the color in both cups.

I'd like to thank Timothy, a great designer in NYC, for sharing two of his favorites teas with me:- 2002 Liu An- 'Song dynasty' spring 2005 2nd grade Dan Chong.

I had never tried these Mainland teas before. The smells of the dry leaves reminded me of black and milk chocolate, respectively! This made me real curious. I will taste them in more detail and hopefully keep you posted, but let me just give you 2 quick impressions:

* The Liu An, a black tea, will turn more and more green after each infusion. It reminded me of an old green tea I drank with Teaparker in the park of the Taida university 2 years ago.* The Dan Chong still has many secrets to uncover for me. The chocolate smell turned to mandarine (a french word for a kind of small orange that's easy to peel). Not a tea everybody will like, but those with a taste for puer should find it interesting.

Monday, October 03, 2005

Here are 2 of my old tea cups. You can see it at their imperfection. The one on the right still has some earth stain that won't go away.

Such old cups with an antique teapot (see below) are not essential to drink old tea, but they create harmony between the tea and the accessories that may open a door to the past during the tasting. The tea has a taste of old, the teaware feels and looks old. You then feel connected to centuries of Chinese tea traditions.

As I said, the teapot does not have to be antique. A new one with a very classic, simple shape like my zhu ni teapot (2 posts below) or this one.

Using old or classic accessories is like dressing up for church. You are showing respect and a willingness to enter in the right mood.

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About Me

My name is Stéphane Erler. I live in Taiwan since 1996 and have been studying tea with Teaparker. He's a worldwide tea expert and author of over 30 tea books. The study of tea isn't just theoretical, but it's also rooted in daily practice. It's a path of continuous improvement. As my brewing technique improves I get access to better teas and better accessories. These things go hand in hand. My blog documents my learning since 2004. And I have set up an online tea boutique with my selection of top quality teas, accessories and tea culture.